The Hindu Business Line : Haldia dock shiploader to be commissioned soon

The installation of the shiploaders is expected to help shipments through the coal berth of the Haldia dock. But there has been an acute shortage of thermal coal at the dock for the past few days, with the result the coastal shipments to southern ports to meet the requirements of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board have been hit.

KOLKATA, June 4

THE Haldia dock will soon formally commission a shiploader at its coal berth. This is one of the two shiploaders the dock authorities are acquiring from Larsen & Toubro in replacement of the ones at the same berth. The two shiploaders will cost Rs 8 crore.

The formal commissioning will be done by the Union Shipping Minister, Mr Vedprakash P. Goyal, at Haldia on Saturday. The dock authorities point out that there has been a substantial delay on the part of the supplier in delivering the equipment.

The first shiploader was due for delivery in October last year and the second one three months after that. The first shiploader has been delivered only recently.

The installation of the shiploaders is expected to help shipments through the coal berth of the Haldia dock.

But there has been an acute shortage of thermal coal at the dock for the past few days, with the result the coastal shipments to southern ports to meet the requirements of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board have been hit.

The ground stock is virtually nil, with the result the colliers are being forced to wait.

There has been a bunching of colliers at the dock and the loading is taking place as and when the coal rakes arrive.

In May, the thermal coal throughput at the dock was 3.7 lakh tonnes.

The dock authorities, it is pointed out, might find it hard to achieve the same level of throughput figure in the current month if the present scarcity persists.

There has been a drop in production in the coalmines as a sequel to the tremendous heat in the coalfields in Bihar and West Bengal. Worse, whatever little is being produced is getting diverted to meet the requirements of a few local power generating agencies responsible for supplying electricity to the urban areas in the State. The agencies have promised to the Government that it will maintain normal power supply in the whole of June so that viewing of World Cup football matches does not suffer.

The Haldia dock authorities do not seem to have major acquisition plans immediately. For several reasons.

First, the berths were privatised. Next, many of the equipment acquired earlier were subsequently found to be of little use.

The dock authorities, therefore, propose to proceed selectively and carefully in regard to mechanisation of the berths still under their control.

One such acquisition relates to a portainer crane for the container berth. The original crane was damaged in a storm four years ago.

The loading and unloading operation in the berth, therefore, has so far been going on without a portainer.

With the steady rise in container throughput, the need for a portainer is being felt by the dock authorities, though not necessarily by way of an outright purchase of new equipment.

Various options such as acquiring new equipment on lease or buying a second-hand crane, among others, are being considered, it is learnt.

On Saturday, the Union Shipping Minister will also launch a survey vessel, ``Carolina'' at the dock. Built at the Shalimar Works, a boat-building company under the West Bengal Government, at an estimated cost of Rs 12 crore, the acquisition of the vessel will add to the dock's fleet strength.

Right now, Haldia dock has under it two survey vessels. It might be noted that the launching of `Sarojini' at Shalimar's own yard in Howrah district about two years ago was held up because of some technical problems. The vessel was subsequently towed to Haldia.

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